In the midst of all that classical music I’m listening to in an attempt to stay on task writing our annual cattle sale catalogue, I have done a bit of rockin’.

Those pictured are mostly more of Ralph’s rocks, mentioned in an earlier post. My goal is to find as many different ways as possible to wrap a cabachon. The rocks are a great way to learn and practice since they present their own set of unique problems. Challenge #1: No two are the same shape or size making it somewhat difficult to repeat a discovered wrapping. Challenge #2: The sides are not equal a given rock. Challenge #3: There is not a flat back, as in a cabachon; therefore what may work for the front doesn’t work for the back of the rock. Challenge #4: I won’t give up.

It would seem that some of these rocks do not wish to be wrapped. Proof of this lies in the wastebasket beside my workspace. Sometimes as I’m starting to feel proud of the wrap completed, the silly rock just pops right out and ends up on my lap. (This is not helpful to my ego!) Other times, the wrap is such a big mess that I take the cutters and whack it off. And then there’s that “morning after” thing. Something that looked really great about midnight is pretty tacky by morning. (Think about that one.)

As I’ve mentioned before, the literature on creative thinking tells us that creative scientists, as opposed to those who are rule bound, know when to abandon an idea and move on. I’m definitely not any good at that, but then I never claimed to be much of a scientist either. (When we started the ranch and I suggested that I could go to vet school, someone suggested that I couldn’t pass the science courses.) It takes me a good deal of time before I give up on an idea and move to another. Perhaps that’s stubbornness, but it could also be resistance to closure. I want to be sure I’ve tried every angle before throwing in the towel on an idea.

The joy of wrapping these rocks is that I have very little money invested in the adventure. Since my friend provided the rocks and I’m practicing with fairly inexpensive copper wire the wrapping in economical.

You might be wondering about the top of the rocks regarding why they have open hooks rather than closed loops. These are created to hang on simple neckwires and are interchangeable. I’ve had no trouble with them slipping off the neckwire as long as the hook bends down a good ways.

Soon I will need to stop wrapping rocks and apply these techniques to cabs, but for now I’m having a great time. Of course, I may have so many that you’ll find them dangling off my lamp shades before long, but I’m sure something better will dawn on me.